i ran Reset_Paths and Playback_to_Headset, plugged headphones in, and driver just hangs on mplayer. I launched pulseaudio -D to start pulse for mplayer. I have Wolfson card and RPi3. I can get wolfsonmixer to output 1Khz wave and noise works, just no audio from the driver. I also tried earlier builds of kernel with older Wolfson driver still no luck! Whats up with this, Cirrus!

OK, this is odd. Just tested on RPi3, Rasbpian, latest rpi-update kernel (same kernel/fw as you) and it worked fine.

The issue seems to be that somehow the I2S clock is not running (either bcm2835 not receiving it or wm5102 clocks not starting up correctly) - indication for that is the "DMA transfer could not be terminated" messages in dmesg.

If you have a scope or logic probe you could check I2S BCLK on the GPIO connector and look if it's toggling a few MHz (depending on sample rate).

Other than that: Could you test without the USB WIFI dongle and USB mouse? Do you have another RPi you could test with?

Another interesting test to narrow it down would be to run LibreELEC (latest release is 8.0.2) from another sd-card. Editing config.txt is a bit different than on Raspbian, see here: https://wiki.libreelec.tv/index.php?title=Config.txt After a reboot change the audio output device from the default HDMI to RPi Cirrus in the Settings, after that you should hear clicks when navigating in the menu.

appreciate the response. I don't have a scope to test the pin you recommended. I will try loading LibreELEC and see what happens. I do have 4 RPi 3 and 4 Wolfson soundcards. I tested multiple cards on multiple boards, same exact result! BTW- I tested on 4.4 kernel, same problem. Question- does the power input on the Wolfson card have to be connected for the Wolfson to work or is that strictly for speaker outs preamps? I don't have power connected to it- I may be wrong on this- but I thought GPIO pins should provide power since the lights do light up and the chip is running. Also Wolfson card has as it looks like other pins for older GPIO and they just touch the board is that ok or should they be trimmed (I did look and they touch plastic paint part of the board)? Also, I can make HDMI output work no problem, it is just when I select Wolfson driver, it doesn't work.

Also Wolfson card has as it looks like other pins for older GPIO and they just touch the board is that ok or should they be trimmed (I did look and they touch plastic paint part of the board)?

Ah, OK, so you have the original Wolfson card that was designed for the older RPis, not the later Cirrus card for RPi2/3.

Without modification that card won't work on RPi2/3, these older GPIO connectors provide the I2S audio signals - that explains the errors you get, card is detected and can be configured, but you get no sound.

See this posting, plus the postings a few pages before and after that, for more details how you can modify the card to work on RPi2/3:

Well that explains everything! I knew there was something radically wrong. Where do I get the wires / taps to modify the board? Or should we just return these? I didn't notice box / newegg/ebay listing saying that they were for RPi 1 only. Another problem we experienced is buying these cards. They seemed to be out everywhere! We barely got ahold of a few, and had to wait forever to get them.

The Cirrus card went out of production and all stock seems to have been sold a few months ago - which is a pity as IMO the Wolfson/Cirrus cards are the most versatile soundcards for the RPi.

Farnell/Element14 still has quite some of the older Wolfson cards in stock, so if you have some experience with a soldering iron modifying it is a viable option to get an excellent soundcard for your RPi2/3.

The trickiest parts are desoldering the zero-ohm SMD resistor on the back and the pogo pin connector. You can get away with the latter if you just isolate the pogo pins and even get away with the former if you build some adapter board - details are in the thread above.

For my mod I used some male-to-female "du-pont" cables I had sitting on the shelf - these cables are really handy and you can get them dirt cheap from China on ebay. But just be creative and use what you have at home, you can also just solder 3 wires to the RPi GPIO connector.